For Every Year of Your Life
by a certain slant of light
Summary: A series of one hundred word drabbles on the relationship between the Doctor and Rose Tyler. ჯ friendship and romance. NineRose, TenRose.
1. January 2008: 1: TenRose

**Author's Note:** Yup, that's right, another series of drabbles from me! These are all for Doctor Who fandom. Right now, it's all New Who, and most will be of the Nine/Rose, Ten/Rose variety (friendship and romance). They're all (or mostly) for image prompts from the Doctor/Rose LJ community Time and Chips, and are all exactly one-hundred words. Unless stated otherwise, they are all standalone. Updating will be fairly sporadic, though I'll try to do it on odd days no more than four days apart.

If you would like a drabble to be longer (one-shot size), feel free to say so, but no guarantees.

Important: THESE ARE ALREADY WRITTEN. THEY ARE DRABBLES. THEY ARE 100 WORDS. PLEASE DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT LENGTH. Thank you. I'm sorry, but this is a problem that arose constantly in my 13drabble series, and I'm quite sick of it.

There will likely be Doctor/Martha drabbles (and other pairings) interspersed throughout.

Comments and feedback are appreciated! Thank you!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Doctor Who nor any of its respective characters, settings, etc. This applies to all current and upcoming chapters.

* * *

**Title:** New New Year  
**Character/Pairing:** Ten, Rose; Ten/Rose**  
Prompt:** January 2008: 1: A brightly colored Chinese building**  
Summary:** She's amazed at the extents he goes to just to be clever.

* * *

New Beijing was a strange place to be. She had never been to Old Beijing, never read about it, but supposed it did not look at all like this. 

"There's smoke everywhere." Rose tugged the collar of her shirt over her nose.

"Steampunk age," the Doctor said. "Actually happens."

She wove her fingers through his, pressed against him as they waded through the busy street. "And you like it here?"

"Not particularly."

"Then why did we come?"

"Irony at its finest: New Beijing's main export is flowers. And guess what?"

She coughed, unamused. "What?"

"It's the year of the Rose."


	2. January 2008: 2: NineRose

**Title:** Planet Phantoms**  
Character/Pairing:** Nine, Rose; Nine/Rose**  
Prompt:** January 2008: 2: Black and white photo of a ghostly-looking girl on a sidewalk**  
Summary:** It's a namesake earned.**  
**

* * *

She could see everyone… everywhere. They looked like ghosts drifting through time, blooming into existence and withering out of it. Different people, different races, different planets… It was splitting her head in two, like a supernova behind her eyes. She felt if it leaked out, it could destroy everything… or heal it, she wasn't sure. 

Rose couldn't hear herself speak, or him either – she was too busy seeing, couldn't stop seeing, couldn't believe how much it hurt to blink. Then there was warmth on her lips, softness, and she felt time pour out of her.

He really was a doctor.


	3. January 2008: 3: Nine, Rose

**Title:** Drawing the Wibbly-Wobbly Line  
**Character/Pairing:** Nine, Rose**  
Prompt:** January 2008: 3: A playful looking little girl in a ballerina costume**  
Summary:** Rose finally snaps.

* * *

"You humans," mumbled the Doctor as he usually did when his favorite race was doing something he approved of – or the exact opposite, "of all the species in all the universe, you-" 

"What?" snapped Rose suddenly, not willing to listen to the night's iteration of 'Time Lords are the greatest, humans might be a close second'. "Are the most destructive, never know when to quit, are the only ones who can make good treacle tart? What?"

He blinked, only stood and blinked for a few moments, then smiled and said, "You're the only ones who could subsist purely on cheek." 


	4. January 2008: 4: Ten, Rose

**Title:** Fancy Dress  
**Character/Pairing:** Ten, Rose  
**Prompt:** January 2008: 4: A person shopping in a monster costume  
**Summary:** Jackie Tyler will get you, Time Lord or no.

* * *

"What are you wearing?" Rose asked, dumbfounded. 

"Third date, Rose," replied the Doctor in his usual light tone.

She huffed; he was bedecked in the most garishly yellow Big Bird costume she had ever seen. "Do I get an explanation?"

"It wasn't exactly my choice." His voice was muffled. "It was this or Ernie, and with my luck Jack would show up as Bert."

Rose laughed, looping her arm through his wing. "Mum made you wear it, didn't she?"

"Honestly, you think I can't dress myself?"

Rose couldn't resist. "Not at all. You'll be the hottest chick at the party."


	5. January 2008: 5: Ten, Rose

**Title:** Pennames  
**Character/Pairing:** Ten, Rose  
**Prompt:** January 2008: 5: A red rose against a desaturated background  
**Summary:** Good ol' Billy S.

* * *

"You read Shakespeare?" she asked one day when she caught him absently perusing a tattered first edition in the console room. 

"William, yeah."

She quirked an eyebrow inquisitively. "There are others?"

"Sure. He's famous all over the universe; there are tons of writers picking up his name. Xerxes Shakespeare's one of my favorites, then there's Lucy Shakespeare, Hant Shakespeare, Byronzo Shakespeare, just for starters." The Doctor tapped the book affectionately. "William's the best, though."

Rose's lips tugged into a smile. "So a rose by any other name…"

"Wouldn't smell as sweet." He rolled his eyes. "Philistine. Go read Harry Potter."


	6. January 2008: 6: NineRose

**Title:** Upside Down  
**Character/Pairing:** Nine, Rose; Nine/Rose  
**Prompt:** January 2008: 6: The picture of a sky exploding with fireworks; the silhouette of a hand outstretched upwards  
**Summary:** He wants to take her everywhere.

* * *

"You're going to love Byron Three. The oceans are air."

"What, you mean like the planet's upside down?"

The Doctor gave her a goading look. "Typical human, always thinking others've got it wrong. Maybe Earth's the one flipped on its back."

She rolled her eyes, humoring him. "Fine. So what about Byron Four's water? Where's that?"

"Three," he corrected, then grinned excitedly. "That's the thing: the atmosphere is so thick you can actually touch the sky."

Rose looked around the TARDIS and smiled, running fingers over a light and watching it shine right through her skin. "Been there, done that."


	7. January 2008: 7: Ten, Rose

**Title:** Misplaced Enthusiasm  
**Character/Pairing:** Ten, Rose  
**Prompt:** January 2008: 7: A sketch of a woman  
**Summary:** The Doctor draws.  
**Author's Note:** This is based on a running joke between my best friend and me. We both draw, and we've decided the most annoying questions any artist gets asked are "What are you drawing? Are you drawing me?" Especially when it's from a stranger looking over your shoulder.

* * *

"I didn't know you draw," said Rose, flipping through the TARDIS manual, which she had unintentionally found in a previously unexplored closet. (_"I haven't seen that in two hundred years!"_ the Doctor had cried.) 

"I don't."

"But look at all these," she said, flipping through pages crowded with sketches. Funny, she had never seen him draw elsewhere. "They're really good."

The Doctor shrugged. "I guess it's sort of a hobby. Not much time for it anymore."

"Could you draw me?" she asked, and he rolled his eyes. That question was precisely why he'd lost the manual in the first place.


	8. January 2008: 8: TenRose

**Title:** Knowledge & Wonderment**  
Character/Pairing:** Ten, Rose; Ten/Rose**  
Prompt:** January 2008: 6: A box of paper stars and the text "wish upon them"**  
Summary:** He's a man who knows everything, yet she still makes him wonder.**  
Author's Note:** I love the Doctor in Lecture Mode. And I made a mistake: This is the eighth prompt, and the sixth is a completely different one. So now the sixth (the actual new drabble, because I fail) is the sixth chapter.

* * *

The Doctor caught her wishing upon a star once – quite the stroke of misfortune. 

"They're not stars, and even if they were, they can't grant wishes. Maybe one or two can, stars that is, but they aren't stars, not really. Not even sentient suns – they're called Persi, floating billions of light-years away. They're not made of gas, either, just dust particles drawn together by this independent psychic energy into a great big ball that reflects the light of other stars, but they haven't got the greatest hearing so don't get your hopes up." He paused. "What'd you wish for anyway?"


	9. January 2008: 17: TenRose

**Title:** Doctor Does Domestic  
**Character/Pairing:** Ten, Rose; Ten/Rose  
**Prompt:** January 2008: 17: The most hideous birthday cake I've ever seen  
**Summary:** She tries all sorts of new things for him - he returns the favor.

* * *

She hadn't mentioned her birthday to the Doctor, so it came as a great surprise when he gave her a box on the precise day, fairly large and elaborately wrapped… in tinfoil. She opened it, and therein sat the ugliest cake in possibly the entire universe, with olives and licorice and icing the color of an ill person, slumped in a sort of pile shape, half of which was smeared on one side of the box – and he beamed telling her that he made it himself. 

A smile warmed her face. "Did you drop it or something?"

The Doctor frowned.


	10. January 2008: 19: NineRose

**Title:** A Dying Smile  
**Character/Pairing:** Nine, Rose; Nine/Rose  
**Prompt:** January 2008: 19: Silhouette of a man standing on a bluff, overlooking a sprawling city and cataclysmic vista  
**Summary:** On pastimes in past times.

* * *

The Doctor always thought there was something beautiful about a world ending – tragically beautiful, but beautiful nonetheless. He'd seen countless worlds die, made detours in time just to watch, ate popcorn and clapped during a planet's final explosion. There was a macabre humor there too, but always the tragic beauty somewhere underneath.

When Rose Tyler watched her world die, he kept his eyes on her and saw the way her breath came hard and sharp, the way her smile darkened to a quivering frown. She did not laugh. After that, the Doctor never quite saw them as anything but tragic. 


	11. January 2008: 22: Ten, Rose

**Title:** Curiouser Companions  
**Character/Pairing:** Ten, Rose  
**Prompt:** January 2008: 22: Extreme close-up of a cat's face  
**Summary:** Because "stupid cats" doesn't sound nearly as good.

* * *

They were at a party somewhere in New New York, though Rose wasn't sure why. It was one of those mishaps she was getting used to, like teleporting to the corner store and arriving in Nottingham circa 1402. The Doctor was talking to a cat-woman about politics and earthonomics, and it was only after she had left to fetch them some milk that Rose could catch his attention.

"I think she fancies you," Rose teased.

He shrugged. "It would never work."

"Oh? Why's that?"

He grinned. "Your curiosity is enough to keep my hands full, but hers would kill me." 


	12. January 2008: 25: Ten, Rose

**Title:** Rose-Colored Glasses  
**Character/Pairing:** Ten, Rose  
**Prompt:** January 2008: 25: A cluster of colorful plastic stars in the palm of someone's hand  
**Summary:** New worlds, new skies, new colors.

* * *

"And what's that color?"

"That's –" The next word out of his mouth she couldn't pronounce or understand, but nodded anyway.

"And that one?"

"That's _ohn_, sort of what you get if you mix blue and purple with _iruyk_."

Rose lay back in the grass, watching the _bri_-colored clouds float by, eyes wandering the lengths of the parallel rainbows above them. "And why can't we go see the species that live here?"

The Doctor turned to look at her. "They've never seen blonde. You'd give them a heart attack."

She laughed. "Are you serious? They'd be _ohn_ with envy." 


	13. January 2008: 27: Ten, Rose

**Title:** Logical View  
**Character/Pairing:** Ten, Rose  
**Prompt:** January 2008: 27: A man and a cat leaning out an open window  
**Summary:** Companions come in all sizes.

* * *

"Why haven't you got any windows in here?"

The Doctor looked up from the console, observing Rose quizzically over the frames of his glasses. "How do you mean?"

"I mean how I said. Whenever you wanna look at something, you've got to open the door. One day one of us will fall out because you don't have any windows."

He shrugged. "Liability."

"More than the door?"

"More than the door."

She ambled over while he resumed his switch-flicking and knob-spinning. "How do you know?"

He kept his eyes on the panel and said nonchalantly, "I used to have a cat."


	14. January 2008: 28: Ten, Rose

**Title:** The Importance of Precision  
**Character/Pairing:** Ten, Rose  
**Prompt:** January 2008: 28: A pale woman in a wedding dress lying with white roses  
**Summary:** Even if it's never get where you're meaning to go, you're getting somewhere.

* * *

Rose was exhausted from a very long day of saving the universe – again. "A little trip, you said, just to see the sky lights of Makorius. But then we get chased by bounty hunters, locked in cages, nearly obliterated by a bomb, _and_ I broke a nail. It's just one thing after another with you!"

The Doctor was too happy to correct her. "Now, that's a simple way to look at it. It's actually more like one thing after another before another during one more."

"Right, you're such a stickler for precision."

He tugged a random lever and smiled. "Exactly."


	15. January 2008: 30: Ten, Rose

**Title:** Ascending  
**Character/Pairing:** Ten, Rose  
**Prompt:** January 2008: 30: A winding staircase  
**Summary:** To be fair, sometimes it's a ladder.  
**Author's Note:** Last drabble from me, and this completes the series! Thanks everyone who's read, reviewed and favorited! I'm very happy you enjoyed these little ficbits!

* * *

After many adventures, Rose Tyler grew accustomed to stairs – or so she liked to tell herself in moments of quiet, but ascending the forty-third floor of New New New York's empire state building, running for her life, she didn't feel so congenial.

"Why stairs?" she asked between breaths. "Why not the lift? Why not _ever_ the lift?"

"Personally," said the Doctor, "I prefer the stairs. Whenever we take the lift, there's no actual lift – just a cable or dark foreboding shaft to jump down all willy-nilly."

Rose thought on this as she lost her breath and thanked Heaven for stairs.


End file.
